A review diary by Uwe Steinmueller
@Digital Outback Photo

Also photos by Bettina Steinmueller

"I have been purchasing the E-Booklets for
some time and have never been disappointed. The latest one continues
to add new and helpful information. I will continue to upgrade,
if not just to show my support for Uwe's fantastic site. We
are all lucky to have a resource like this available to us."
Brud Jones, 2/1/2004

If you work with
Photoshop CS our e-books
DOP1009 or DOP2000 are the right choice for the
Canon 1D Mark II. DOP2000 is the more complete handbook.

Note on image processing:

As usual we work only with raw files and use a of Camera
Raw for Photoshop CS early beta or Canon DPP 1.5.

As some readers use our pictures to compare
cameras we needed to update one image crop from Los Gatos:

RSE and strong EasyS sharpening

Please always try use our RAW files
to compare images and not the JPGs presented here. Here is touroriginal
posting. Also the light can change the contrast and
give different impressions of sharpness.

2/12/2005 1DS Mk. II for close-up shots

We like to photograph rock abstracts.
These are not really macro photos more in the range from
1 to 9 feet. Now you can argue that these shots are best taken
from a tripod. Technically this is the right way to do it. But
we often prefer the work freehand as this allows us to move fast
and reframe much more easily. Because we also want overcast light
we have to pay a price:

Later we upsized the photo to
30x20" 300PPI with the free DOP_Upsizing. Here
is a crop at 8x10" 300PPI that you can download
for your own inspection (2.7MB). Best you print
the crop as on screen you will see the upsizing effect. Remember
this is a 200% upsized view!

crop from the above image

There is a lot against this photo:

No tripod used

challenging DOF

1/160 second sounds fast but the 1Ds Mk. II will show
all motion blur

low contrast due to overcast

Overall we think we go the shot we wanted. Still the original
shot was more on the soft side.

1/30/2005 1DS Mk. II for Landscape photos?

Often we hear often the question whether
the 1Ds Mk. II is good for landscape photos. Of course the answer
depends
on
your standards. If you are used to 8x10" scanned film the
answer maybe no. But we were happy using the older 1Ds for landscapes
as we think detail is not the only criterion for a landscape shot.

But you can be the judge yourself. Here is a photo that we took
this week at Big Sur:

Big Sur

The photo was taken at ISO 160,
f/13, 1/160 sec with the 70-200mm f/2.8 IS lens. No tripod but
IS was used. The scene was pretty hazy which lowered the
contrast.

This is not a shot directly out
of the Raw Converter (Capture One). Because of the difficult white
surf we combined two different raw exposures. We also enhanced
the midtone contrast using our Tonality
Toning Toolkitand sharpened with EasyS
Sharpening Toolkit(sorry we use our own tools :-)
).

We are now only waiting for the release of Capture One
3.6 for the PC (we use a non public beta right now).

12/11/2004 Comparing 1Ds Mk. II, 1Ds and 1D
Mk. II

We are quite unique in providing real world
raw images for our readers to do their own personal analysis
(find the test
files here).
Our friend Phil Lindsay did just that. Here are his subjective
findings:

"I have spent lots of time looking at your 1D2, 1DS and
1DS MkII raw ISO 100 files of the old wooden building. It is
a great
subject with lots of detailed chipped paint, rust and wood texture.
I am currently using the PhotoKit Sharpening package. I used
capture sharpening then upsized the images to 16 x 24 and finally
applied output sharpening. I then repeated the experiment with
another set of files upsized to 24 x 36. After examining at 100%
and printing on Epson premium luster, I have made some observations:

1. 1D2 MkII does not hold up resolution wise even at 16 x 24

2. 1DS MKII was the best of the bunch

3. 1DS is a great camera

The resolution difference between the 8 MP 1D2 and 11 MP 1DS
(approximately 1.4X difference) was much greater than the difference
between the 11 MP 1DS and 16 MP 1DS MKII (also approximately
a 1.4X difference). My 10x loupe inspection showed higher resolution
(especially in the paint chips) for the 1DS MkII but the difference
could not be seen by the unaided eye. In stark contrast, the
1D2 looked soft. I tried more aggressive sharpening on the 1D2
but
I could not improve the resolution. I suspect the difference
might have been less with the high ISO files but my focus was
low ISO.

Maybe the difference is due to heavy AA filtering in the Mark
II series- what ever, the tests suggest that the 1DS is a great
tripod ISO 100 landscape camera."

Note by us: The results may vary slightly if you use different
raw converters and different sharpening. Especially the 1D Mk.
II
needs a lot
of highest quality sharpening. Phil thank you for your analysis.
Phil did the tedious task and compared on real large sized prints
which can be the only measure of ultimate image quality.

Clearly the 1Ds was better in resolution than the 1D Mk. II
but was quite behind in noise at higher ISO values. This time we
used again the same scene and one of Canon's best lenses: 135mm
f/2.0.

Because we again provide the original raw files we show only
the results at ISO 800 which we find the most interesting.

Old Grocery in Alviso

If you look at the 1Ds Mk. II files
then they have about 50% more pixels and that translates into
about 21% more pixels per dimension. That is why we crop the 1Ds
at 500x300 and the 1Ds Mk. II at 660x366 pixels to show about
the same content.

The images were converted with
ACR (beta version, no sharpening, Color Noise to 11) and sharpened
at the same levels with EasyS. Both were slightly underexposed
(we
try
to
avoid
blown
highlights
at any cost) which means the results show worse than ISO 800
actually is.

Detail

1Ds @ ISO 800

1Ds Mk. II @ ISO 800

Yes, there is more detail
from the Mk. II but the 1Ds is a very good camera.

Noise @ISO 800

1Ds @ ISO 800

1Ds Mk. II @ ISO 800

Here the 1Ds Mk. II is a clear
winner. Although in this test the 1Ds showed a really good ISO
800 performance.

We provide our readers again with
the original raw files (for your own personal inspection only,
they are our copyright and may not be published without our written
permission). We also added the ISO100 and ISO400 original files.

We don't feel that DPP 1.5 is the optimal tool
for our workflow. There are some improvements over DP1.0 thought
that we had reviewed
here. Good news is that the 300D and 10D now also
supported.

11/24/2004 In Monterey

We now use the 1Ds Mk. II in our regular outdoor
work. Today we had a trip to Monterey where we are most attracted
by the commercial fishing pier.

Fish Cart

For use the better noise behavior of the 1Ds Mk.
II compared to the original 1Ds is the main difference and not
so much the resolution (does not hurt of course :-) ). We will
add the above image to our portfolio.

The above image is also part of our first PDF
portfolio about Monterey.

11/23/2004 Histograms

On one side it is positive that the 1Ds Mk.
II (like the 1D Mk. II) supports both luminance and RGB histograms.
But outdoors it is "hell" to read these tiny histograms properly.
Would be nice if we could get a larger LCD and also use more
of the available space.

Note: We probably
did not use enough sharpening for the ACR 3.0 beta version as
we were more used to the sharpening levels for Capture One files.

The crops get smaller and smaller
at 100% magnification as the resolution gets up. Don't get fooled:
the images at 100% may look softer but they also represent a much
smaller area in final prints (if printed at the same size).

Note: These photos
showed also that the Canon 24-70mm f/2.8 lens shows quite a strong
distortion. We thought this was related to the 1Ds Mk. II. Then
we looked at our old 1Ds shots and saw the same level of distortion.
The images presented here were corrected to show less lens
and perspective distortions.

Note: Make sure
that the file has the suffix "DNG", Some browsers get fooled
and want to name it "TIFF".

We provide our readers with some
original raw files. But what if most of the readers don't have
a raw converter that supports a new camera like the 1Ds Mk. II?
We now also provide DNG (Adobe Digital Negative File). This way
owners of Camera Raw 2.3 (which cannot open the native raw files)
can now open DNG files that we converted from the original Canon
CR2 files. We will use the DNG logo if we provide certain
files in DNG.

We did a second ISO test using
our standard scene and additional ISO 1600. We converted with
ACR (no noise removal) and then sharpened with the same level
of EasyS.

Bear Coffee Shop

Canon 1Ds Mark II

ISO 100

ISO
200

ISO 400

ISO 800

ISO 1600

Very clean files up to ISO 400.
Even ISO 800 looks excellent and ISO 1600 is very useable too.
This seconds the findings we had with some real world nature
shots in Sedona that behaved very well at ISO 400. This excellent
ISO behavior is more important to us than even the extra resolution.

11/17/2004 1Ds Mk. II, Lenses, Shake and DOF

At out summit we (me and some friends) did quite a few comparison
shots between the "old" 1Ds and the Mk. II versions.
The quality change is not always that obvious.

1. We have a tendency to judge images at 100% and here a high
res image tends to look softer. But remember that the same number
of pixels will cover a smaller area if print sizes are equal.

2. 1Ds and 1Ds Mk. II challenge lenses in the capability to
resolve. Again this may be not that evident in smaller prints.

3. DOF issues show up stronger viewed at 100% and/or printed
large

4. Shake shows up more too

5. The 1Ds Mk. II needs quite a bit of sharpening

Most impressive were some shots with the Canon 50mm Macro lens
as DOF and sharpness were both good. Also remember that resolution
alone never makes an image.

11/16/2004 Our main part of the diary will start
next week

No, we won't talk just over noise. But here
are the facts:

Camera handles very much like the 1D
Mk. II (except of speed and larger files). This
means the 1Ds Mk. II is a very well know body already (we use
and own it over half a year now).

The key issues are image quality and this includes:

Noise

Detail (e.g. design of the AA filter)

Note: Officially only the DPP raw
converter is supporting the 1Ds Mk. II right now (part of the
camera delivery). But noise and detail can differ from raw converter
to raw converter. So even more tests will not be the final verdict
before we have more raw converter options.

We had the opportunity to do a first noise test. That is why
we wanted to provide full sized files (raw and JPGs) to our readers
for their own inspection.

Also remember that the Canon 1Ds is/was a stunning camera and
will not be left in the dust by the 1Ds Mk. II. Our initial feeling
is that the 1Ds Mk II provides real more detail but you need to
print real big to make use of the extra resolution.

11/14/2004 First Canon 1Ds Mk. II Tests

We will probably get our 1Ds Mk. II test camera
next week. But at our Summit we had the chance to do some test
shots with a different 1Ds Mk. II.

Here is a first ISO test:

ISO Test

Color Checkers

The following table shows crops
at different ISO levels.

Note:
we used a beta version of Camera Raw and set all noise removal
to zero.

Canon EOS
1Ds Mk II

ISO 100

ISO
200

ISO 400

ISO 800

Results look excellent up the ISO
200, pretty good at ISO 400 and then not to bad at 800. We clearly
need more experience here.

We try to provide our readers with
raw reference files for own inspection. Here are some raw
files. But we also added also some JPGs that were
created with DPP 1.5 because most readers won't have a raw converter
for the 1Ds MK. II right now.